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A little while back, Topless Robot made a list of 14 incredibly disturbing moments in kids' movies. Although the list wasn't meant to be all-inclusive, judging from the comments section, there were a ton of messed up childhoods out there, because there were hundreds of comments telling us which traumatic movie moments we forgot. So here are 11 more moments from kids' films that were terrifying, weird and just plain upsetting (feel free to let us us know what we should include in the inevitable round 3).
11) The Wizard of Oz
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10) Superman III
Superman III is not technically a kids' movie. It's also not technically a good movie. But for a legion of young fanboys who were at just the right age when this film came out, this scene hit a major nerve. Lead villain Ross Webster's supercomputer becomes self-aware which is never a good thing. When Ross and his cronies try to escape, Ross' sister Vera is dragged back into the computer where she is forcibly transformed into a cyborg. Sure, to today's untrained eye, she kind of looks like Irona the Robot Maid from Richie Rich. But to a generation of young nerds, watching Vera's terrified reaction slowly get reduced to robotic stillness -- and those eyes! --is a horrific scene that is imprinted on their brain forever.
9) The Secret of NIMH
The Secret of NIMH follows the adventures of a widowed mother who needs help to protect her ill son. Along the way, she finds out information about her dead husband's former life. Great kids movie fodder already! But what if you sweeten the pot by making the majority of the main characters rats and mice? And not cute mice, like Mickey Mouse. Some of these rats have glowing eyes and gnarled, warty bodies. NIMH was meant to be the first shot in an animation war in which Don Bluth promised to bring back the early Disney style of animating. And not surprisingly, along with the traditional animation, Bluth re-introduced terrifying small children through cartoon movies as well.
8) Labyrinth
Labyrinth is the Jim Henson film that doesn't go as crazy as The Dark Crystal, but doesn't completely regress to Muppets territory either (although it came damn close with the "Magic Dance" number). Still, the movie did have a lot of weirdness to it, especially the scenes where Jareth, The Goblin King (and also King of Unnecessary Crotch Shots) seems to be in love with a 15-year-old Jennifer Connelly. The tension is probably at its peak in the fantasy Masquerade scene where Jennifer, playing the character Sarah, is very tempted to stay in a fantasy land that is constantly playing Bowie songs -- which admittedly could be worse.
7) Dumbo
The Pink Elephants on Parade scene in Dumbo is supposed to be Dumbo's reaction to getting accidentally drunk, which can only mean that animators in 1941 had much stronger booze than what is available today. After waking up in a tree from this alcohol-fueled nightmare, Timothy the Mouse hypothesizes that Dumbo can fly. Which just lends further credence to my theory that this elephant/mouse combo were actually just straight up tripping balls. It's kind of amazing that a whole generation of Disney kids didn't grow up as teetotalers after watching these animated DTs.
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